Monday, October 29, 2018

NASA Spots Rectangular Iceberg in Antarctica

During
Operation IceBridge, NASA's longest-running aerial survey of polar ice,
photos of a very sharp-angled, tabular iceberg were captured over the
northern Antarctic Peninsula on October 16, 2018. This iceberg was found
by senior support scientist Jeremy Harbeck just off of the Larsen C Ice
Shelf.

NASA scientists explained later that the process that
formed this iceberg is actually fairly common. Tabular icebergs are wide
and flat, like sheet cake. They split from the edges of ice shelves
through a process that is relatable like a fingernail growing too long
and cracking off at the end. This often makes them rectangular and
geometric as a result.

A second iceberg spotted by Jeremy Harbeck. Image Credit: NASA/Harbeck

“I thought it was pretty interesting; I often see icebergs with
relatively straight edges, but I've not really seen one before with two
corners at such right angles like this one had,” Harbeck said. “I was actually more interested in capturing the A68 iceberg that we
were about to fly over, but I thought this rectangular iceberg was
visually interesting and fairly photogenic, so on a lark, I just took a
couple photos."

Article Compiled By: Kyle Tam

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